REPORT FROM ISRAEL/PALESTINE Heidi Meinzolt, February 2008
Little Diary: 2.2. arrival in Tel Aviv – a lively western city turned to the Mediterranean Sea; first meeting with women from the Israeli section (Jewish and Arab women) and host by Alix Weizmann 3.2. Together with Aliyah Strauss in the old city of Tel Aviv; meeting with Jörn Böhme the director of the Heinrich Böll office. Travel to Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv. Visit of a city with mixed population, problems of resettlements, haouse demolitions, political differences. Meeting with lawyers, a bi-national youth organisation, NGOs and refugees. 4.2. Travel with Daphne, Aliyah, Taghrid, and others to Beet Sheeva and the Negev desert to "illegal" Bedouin villages; many informations and stories about history and tragedies of Bedouin. Nearby a suicide attack in Dimona. Way back over Hebron – horrible settler experiences! 5.2. Checkpoint tour, wall, enclaves (Nablus) in the Westbank, evening by bus to Jerusalem, meeting with Hanan 6.2. with Hanan to Ramallah und Al-Bireh: flowers on Arafats grave, town hall of Al-Bireh (with Nahriman Al Far – city councillor, meeting with the mayor), Tour to burning points in and around the cities, visit of Amari refugee camp, evening in the lifely city of Ramallah with a lot of political debates. 7.2. with Hanan to Hebron. With Maisam in Hebron and around (Jatta, Dura) meting with a women parlamentarian of the PNC, visit of comunity institutions, hospital, confrontation with checkpoints, a lot of misery!… 8.3. Recreation and tourism in the old city of Jerusalem (olive mountain, western wall, Bazaar…); talk with Christian Sterzing, director of the Böll office in in Ramallah. 9.3. Meeting with representatives of both sections (Hanan, Nahriman, Riad Jubran and Aliyah, Daphne, Moran, Lena, Lizi, Hila. Agreement on ME coordination and mandate; with the Isareli women to a mourning for a murdered Palestinian girl - and to the airport.
Some spotlights on my travel
"Only the one who goes home confused has understood something" reminded me Christian Sterzing at the end. And he must be right. You feel very much angry and sad regarding all the Human rights violations the crimes against humanity, the suffering of the Palestinians from the occupation, their poverty and the arbitrariness (sure is mostly often politically intentioned) of the repression and on the other side the militarization of the Israeli society, the ignorance, and selfishness, the security panics accompanied by totally unbalanced and unjustified measures.
And than there are so many beautiful things in this country: nature, colours, culture, engaged people/women full of warm hearts, of humour, of dynamics and power (or at least a strong unbroken will to survive!) and peace work on all sides. But you step also on religious perversities, turning around blood, soil, graves , values and interpretation of history full of contradictions - for which in large parts, Israeli politics stand for and settlers are making their own laws. If you come back from Hebron in the evening to Jerusalem and you see all these orthodox Jews in the street running to the western wall or the synagogue, you really feel a bit bad with all your ideas of peace in your head and heart.
Starting point of my tour was Tel Aviv, a modern Jewish city, disconnected from the political schizophrenia in other parts of the country and the occupied territories. Why? Discussions in the
political arena , the Knesset and in the mainstreamed media (with exception of very few courageous journalists) show a clear image of who is your friend and who is the enemy. With the obligatory military service (3 years for young men and 2 years fort he girls – very few object because the consequences are heavy; the Arabs don't serve with considerable problems for lodging, studying, earning money and lack of privileges) many get brainwashed or traumatised.
Why is there no progress towards peaceful conflict solution? Many intellectuals knowing well the situation tell you: "There is no solution", there are perhaps some visions for a peaceful conflict management – and theses perspectives are interpreted in a very different way depending with whom you speak. It is obvious that there is no negotiation on equal footing in the sense of "if you stop sending missiles, I will speak with you again on a retreat." The starting points are too far from each other, or should we be more fatalistic like Avi Primor: "the truth does not lie in the middle, but we should not touch it and move it from there.". At the end the 2-states-solution (as required also from WILPF) would need a democratic Jewish state on the one side and a Palestinian State with a real autonomous territory; but at time being, neither the one nor the other exist and even a respective decision is still far away. So will we have more a kind of Shakespeare solution (where at the end everybody is dead) or better a Tschechow solution (people survive in the catastrophe)? Hope? Which kind of peace can we still imagine? There is a lot to do!
Jaffa: The city has (still) a mixed population and therefore is a problem fort he Jewish neighbourhood in Tel Aviv. Jaffa is 4000 years old and was a former important harbour from where tons of agrumes have been sent out and where many pilgrims for the Holy Land arrived. Jaffa has suffered a lot of destruction and conquers during history until recently. Now the old city has been transformed to a kind of museum with artists producing for rich tourists. The original population was exiled. This is part of making Jaffa a city for rich people, including expropriation of Jews and Arabs, house demolitions, exclusion. With a lot of American money land and territories are bought (responsible for distribution the Jewish National Council) and exclusive apartment houses are built. Many lost their property rights. Some lawyers and civil society movements we met, fight for them without having a big success. The juridical system is not equal and just neither for Jews and Arabs, nor for rich and poor people.
It was inspiring to meet in Jaffa people from a jewish-palestinian youth organisation who do a very good work supported by international sponsoring: Reut Sadaka brings young people from both sides together to know each other, to discuss politically and do common action in the society, also in schools and and trainings (also abroad with other students from conflict zones for example from the Balcans. "If you have opened your eyes one time, there is no way back anymore" told us one of the coordinators. (www.reutsadaka.org)
Beduins in the Negev:
There are 160.000 Arab-Bedouins in the Negev today. About half of the population lives in poor and squalid "townships" which originated in the 1960's as part of the Israeli State policy to "concentrate" the Bedouin population in small and circumscribe areas, in order to vacate as much land as possible for future Jewish settlements. This policy is one aspect of Israel's long term program of "Judaization" of the land. The population suffers from the highest unemployment rates and lowest incomes in the country. Not enough land is available for home, for business and for urban expansion. The other half of the Bedouin population resides in some 45 villages that are not officially recognized by the State of Israel. The Israeli government acknowledges the existence of those villages only as "scattered Dwellings" not as real municipal entities with any legal standing or planning requirements, and does not provide them with basic services. The government's policy is an ongoing demand that they evacuate their lands and villages and move to the townships. The villages have no political representation. Electricity, running and potable water, sewage, access roads, telephone lines, and garbage collection cannot be obtained. Schools - if there are, are difficult to reach, medical service is a catastrophe. The State of Israel has in the meantime built 7 cities to concentrate the Bedouins there, but they refuse, and so they are constantly threatened by house demolitions, evacuation, and extreme poverty. We visited a school which has grown too big, according to Israeli law, and officially a new school shoud have been built, but the government built a wall (!what ignorance!) in the school yard in order to have two independently registered schools for the administration. The Negev is also the waste deposal of the whole country. Chemical factories with horrible emissions and nuclear waste dumps (nuclear factory in Dimona!) are damaging the health of the population – of course also the Israeli population in the big city of Beet Sheeva nearby. A cynical proposal for evacuation of the village which we visited was to settle the people near to a new built chemical factory. No surprise if the people are getting more and more radical (Islamisation is visible and growing). There is a positive thing: a group called Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality where grassroot activists and academic movements are struggling for equal rights and of mutual tolerance and coexistence (www.dukium.org).
Hebron: Approaching Hebron, you see everywhere the "nice" settler homes with their red roofs in villages and outposts on the top of each hill. The access roads to Palestinian villages are blocked with big beton blocks, stones and earth embankments – Bulldozers did and do their work efficiently! And if this is not enough to imprison the Palestinian citizens in their villages and block their mobility (for work, access to social services, hospitals, schools…) you arrive on 1 or more checkpoints. In the old city the expulsion of the original inhabitants goes continuously on by Israelis pushing for a "final solution" (it is the place of the tomb of the patriarchs where the Ibrahim mosque sits). Some very aggressive settlers have built their houses even on top of Palestinian houses or directly in front and shoot with stones and canons on their Palestinian "neighbours". The lively market street with a lot of traditional shops is totally closed for "security reasons" by military order. The access to Palestinian houses is possible even accompanied by the inhabitants only through different gardens from the backside, the risk is permanent aggression by settlers even for visitors. The military police stationed at roof tops and street corners "protect" these settlers. The Palestinian houses in this part of the
city have barred windows on the street side. The access is an "Apartheidroad" or by-pass road, controlled and closed only for settlers. More and more of these exclusive new built roads are also in the countryside – cutting villages from their gardens and fields. The settlers of Hebron throw garbage, shit in the house yards of Palestinians, they attack and mistreat Palestinian families; the settler women and their children shout on children going home from school and beat them. Often soldiers observe and don't intervene. International observers also get aggressed. Settlers steel olives, and cut vineyards to an extend that is inimaginable. I saw the consequences and amateur videos which are disgusting and hoorifying! All these daily Human rights violations and crimes against humanity happen under the eyes of Internationals, there are even high court decision (Israeli and international) which are not respected. In 1994 settlers sprayed Palestinians with bullets while they prayed in the mosque and shot 35 of them. Nobody of the criminals ever was condemned. I was impressed by the brochure "breaking the silence" in which Israeli ex-soldiers reported on their service in Hebron. Hebron is dived in 2 parts: H1 (officially under Palestinian control) and H2 (under "mixed" control, but total military presence and very few international peacemakers TIPH, who cannot do much more than document the heaviest HR violations to offer a bit of solidarity and to send reports to the EU and the UN – you can ask yourself: who is reading these reports, and what are the consequences ?). 40.000 people life in an Apartheitsystem, tyrannised by about 200-300 Jewish settlers in the city and around. In Hebron you will not find playgrounds for children, the schools are overloaded, so they are forced to teach in 2 series; the streets are a real disaster. The people nevertheless are strong, still full of will to survive, full of courage, but you can hear also their open disappointment, their frustrations due to the humiliation by the occupation. Especially young people doubt on their future in Palestine.
Hebron is extreme – everybody confirms this, but Hebron is not a single case! The City of Chalquilya with 45.000 inhabitants is in the meantime totally closed by walls and separation barriers with only 1 entry to and from the neighbouring villages closed also by a checkpoint where you pass sometimes and sometimes not, where you can wait hours - you never know! This has tragic implications on the daily life of the people: getting food, medical care, go to school, to university.
The city of Jatta was in former times reachable in 5 minutes from Hebron by car, today you need an hour if you reach it. Nearby there is a illegal nuclear waste disposal – many people suffer on cancer, the cases are documented, but paper is patient. A cynical story: Jews and Bedouins got iodine medicine - before the Iraq war and the threat of an atomic strike. In the hospital built in 2004 some courageous doctors fight under highly complicated conditions desperately for the health of the people (200 operations and 6000 emergency cases in 1 month, lack of infrastructure, medicines and finances). People with kidney disease who need regular dialyse are confronted with long ways and loss of time due to the checkpoints, many people already died on checkpoints, pregnant women gave birth there. Many people are suffering of allergies, virus and other diseases due to the lack of hygiene and environmental disasters.
Ramallah-Al Bireh: In Ramallah sits the Palestinian national authority and the President Abu Mazen. This does not implie, that all elected people have normal access there. If you come from Hebron for example like the member of the Palestinian legislative Council Dr. Sahar Qwasmi - whom we met - is already extremely complicated to fulfil your duty. You remember of course the siege and the shooting of Arafats residence through Isareli military forces. Today you can find there Arafat's grave, but the laserpointer on top of the building is directed towards Jerusalem and the water in front tells you that the mission is not yet accomplished. WILPF honoured his grave with flowers. Ramallah is also the meeting point of the Palestinian National Council (a kind of Senat with important personalities of the public life - such as Hanan Awwad). Ramallah is getting bigger and bigger - but due to the fact that the city cannot expand on the countryside, space for gardens, play grounds is reduced totally. Many refugees came to settle here (from Nazareth, Haifa and other cities where people have abandoned everything, or were expelled and evacuated by force). On the other side, the evening life is very vivid and lifely now, because the access to Jerusalem is blocked and people stay in Ramallah. We visited together with the municipal councillor and very active WILPF member Nahriman Al Far the town hall of Al-Bireh (which is the twin city of R.) and had an interesting talk with the mayor (who had spend 5 years in Isareli prisons) and some employees of the community. He can use only 1/3 of the territory of the community, the rest is not allowed. No industrial zone or more agricultural use is possible due to the occupation. Many families are separated, citizens (women and men) are in prison, lost their right of return and their properties. We made a tour to the burning points in and around the city: At the border of the city a slaughter house was built financed by the EU and closed 3 years ago, being to close to Jewish settlements in the neighbourhood. Now people desperately slaughter again themselves taking into account health risks. The waste disposal has a very limited entry controlled by the Israeli army; sometimes only for 3 hours a day the lorries can enter, but it can also close completely and the garbage stays in the streets. The deposal has to accept all garbage from the growing settlements who don't pay local taxes, but the local taxes from Ramallah/Al-Bireh go directly to the Isarelis who don't invest them in the occupied territories or give them back, so no compensation! The budget of the municipality is disastrous, streets and public services reflect this problem, and employees are badly paid. If there would not be the rich Palestinians abroad in exile, who invest for example in a nice public library ort he FIFA in a football arena, or highly motivated individuals who organise a sports club with sponsoring from abroad, the situation would be worse. In the year 2003 a sewage water installation was inaugurated (financed by the German GTZ under the explicit condition of the investor to accept also the settlement sewage!). Due to the quantity – especially of the growing settlements, the installation is not sufficient anymore, the cleared water at the end is not allowed to be used for Palestinian land! So it goes useless in the groundwater (with Israeli monopoly) in a country where water is such a precious resource. It is a shame! The newest harassment is that settlers bring wild sows in the region who destroy agricultural land and are not allowed to be shot or poisoned because this would cause military strikes for compensation. A big local hospital was expropriated for a
military post controlling the access to a settlement, blocking at the same time an important communication road for public transport; so now you need instead of 5 minutes 45 minutes to reach where you want to go. The consequences in emergency cases are evident!. The grandfather of one women of the local administration had a wheat field and a big olive garden nearby which is now in the closed zone. So the family is looking there longing and furious. One day???.............. The lack of mobility for everybody is terrible and humiliating. With a Westbank ID you cannot even get a permission to go to East Jerusalem anymore.
(East)Jerusalem – I saw only very little: Different parts, districts east of Jerusalem with a majority of Arab population have been annexed in a continuous process. The consequences are that the local administration is bound and cannot decide anything in their own responsibility; the district or village has no independence no rights, no tax money, no budget to spend for its people but, the Israeli political and administrative units don't invest either; they permanently control, squeeze the people. The roads are bad, the houses, schools, public services are neglected. People pay tax money but don't get anything back. East Jerusalem looses a lot of its attractiveness, commerce, culture are suffering because of the lack of mobility of the people, so few entries in the city and lots of problems to deliver goods. Continuously growing Jewish settlements, real new towns at the border are blocking expansion and development. Only in the old city, life seems to go on as it ever was – I heard about so many cameras to keep a watch on the different people in the market.
Refugee camps: Example Al Amari near Ramallah; 7000 people live on a small area. The were deported or flew. Many families stay there already since 1948. 45% are women. Life in a refugee camp is a collective trauma, not taken into account the individual suffering of the inhabitants. The camp is totally dependent on UN administration and money, if not there would not be a communal centre, a school, nothing. More than 70% of unemployment, growing for the young people especially since they are not allowed anymore to work in Israel. People live in terrible conditions – different generations under one roof. Many of the family members are in prison or (20 for more than 15 years). There are attacks all the time (also the communal centre has been exploded already and rebuilt later); many have lost their hope, their loves, there is no justice because the perpetrators are never judged. A committee full of idealism still and strength tries to guarantee a minimum of social life; they are feeding the dream of return one day to their origin. It is an open question when and how (with a 2 States solution?). Perhaps it would already heal some wounds, "if they could one time organise a (tourist) travel to their villages to show the children and grand children where they are from"? Such a modesty full of understanding for the complexity of the history in this disastrous situation – but a little hope!
Checkpoints: The first and "normal" checkpoints were those between Israel and the Occupied Territories. Ok. In the meantime hundreds are built, sometimes fix checkpoints sometimes flying (you never know
where and when – and of course you often cannot understand even why??. The controls by the Israeli army (many militant settlers also) is an enormous and continuous harassment. You never know if you can pass, how long you have to wait and how bad in inhuman you will be treated. The controls are a permanent humiliation and often the reason is not clear nor are they justified for example to separate settlers from Palestinians because they separate Palestinian villages and towns, people in the villages from their fields and gardens. If olives are not harvested the gardens will be expropriated/annexed quickly. The organisation Machsom Watch, in which many WILPF women serve voluntarly with each week, does a great work. They observe, document the worst situations of harassment and abritrariness, help with contacts to advocacy, lawyers and political contacts. With these humanitarian actions, they assure that they don't want to make cosmetic reparations but they see their actions as a political intervention, as part of the protest agaisnt the occupation. The Machsom Watch women have a got a great respect on the Palestinian side and their unselfish engagement has provoked rage and insolence untill corporeal attacks on the Israeli side. The checkpoints are justified in the Israeli public and the media with "security risks". This is absurd! They are political instruments which are made to humiliate the Palestinians and take all of them hostage for a few crimes. The intention is obvious: make the daily life so complicated that people must leave their country. But also this is a megalomaniac illusion.
The wall and the fences: They compliment the checkpoints in a provocative way. Condemned by the UN Security Council; the International Court of Justice in the Hague, they are growing like a cancer on Palestinian territory. Since the decision of the Israeli government in 2002, the wall is 770 km long now (only 80 km go along the armistice ("green") line of the Westbank from 1949 – which is 430 km), ; the wall isolates 713 km² of the Westbank, 12,6%. It includes more than 100 Israeli settlements (or colonies) and outposts of especially militant settlers – their number is growing constantly – including also the settlements in East Jerusalem. This is the "condition for additional military fences, by pass roads, buffer zones on the Palestinian side of the wall. The remaining Palestinian territory is divided in AB-and C-zones (since Oslo) - A under Palestinian authority, B mixed, C-Israeli authority. Independently of this division, the Israeli army has access everywhere and at every time without giving any reason – a schizophrenic construction. Palestinian villages and cities are now enclaves (such as Nablus, Bethlehem). The wall – double and more of the Berlin wall – the fences, the prohibited areas close and destroy biblical landscapes, cut the mobility of the people and you are nearly lacking words expressing this disaster to people and nature. If you have the impression that you cannot increase theses horrible pictures, you meet a Palestinian family whose house is just 100m above the checkpoint. They are so nice and hospital, they serve wonderful tea telling horrible stories (unemployment, difficult survival, separated families, harassment…). Or the family whose house was the last from the village close to a new settlement. The wall was intended to be built in between. Butt he settlers complained that they don't have enough sun and therefore the wall was built in the Palestinian garden, 8 meters high in front of the kitchen window. Now the family is cut from the village the children from the school –
they have only a little door in the fence , pass military posts and walk half an hour where they needed before 5 minutes!. Lunatic and absurd!
Water and energy: At least 85% of the water reserves from the Westbank go to Israel, who gives access to water - if they give – for horrendous prices. Many villages are totally cut off from water (which is precious of course in the whole region). Instead of this scarcity for Palestinians, some settler homes have swimmmingpools. Their sewage water goes into the fields without cleaning. Many villages are cut from electricity, settlements while bypass roads are illuminated. There is no use of solar energy even for modern houses; ecology is not a priority – with all the sun in the region. What a waste of energy.
What remains? Not much optimism! The political situation seems extremely unstable on all sides. Olmert wants to stay in power and plays the hardliner, nevertheless he is contradicted in his own house (pushed also by the right wing parties in his coalition) and quite weak (also due to the failures during the Lebanon war). He stills gets a lot of support from other countries (also Germany – see letter to ASngela Merkel from WILPF Germany). Abu Mazen is also quite weak especially due to the fights with Hamas and the separation from Gaza. The liberation act in Gaza has revalorated Hamas, despite the political disaster in Gaza and crimes against the population. Nevertheless Hamas must probably be bound into negotiations (under the umbrella of the PLO?) The 2 States solution all problems taken into account, must come quickly! People have still a lot of hope in America, but the electoral campaign prevails actually and what after? Europe ha a splitted tongue. Annapolis has not brought visible progress. Forget about Blair'r role in the ME. UN-Resolutions are since a very long time wasted paper. The international community should not forget about that and name the responsability of Israel, neglecting them all. Israel creates new facts each day, from Palestine you hear about very few desperate attacks. There is no Status Quo, everything changes. Therefore I think the political strategy cannot be anymore even in the peace movement to look for a political solution as such, but push for more processes towards sustainable conflict management.
Peace movements full of good will who try to bring Israelis and Palestinians together sitting around one table, often fail, because there is no common basis anymore or common starting point for discussion on equal footing. Many Palestinian NGOs recognize a danger of "normalisation". While the situation is so different, people are loosing the knowledge of each other. This is the case also for "normal" people in the street: Palestinians don't work anymore in Israel, their children only know
military personal threatening them. The Israeli public partly closes the eyes. The media help to keep crimes against humanity under cover. WILPF Israel is still and always very open towards the discrimination of Arabs in Israel but also extremely sensibilised on the suffering of the Palestinians; there focus is nevertheless different: they have a lot to do in the Israeli society to explain, to raise awareness and to act democratically. The Palestinian section must first of all fight the occupation and empower themselves to survive and be strong.
A necessary mandate and political strategy for WILPF-Middle East It is obvious that WILPF has to be active and strengthened in the Middle East region. As a political Women's Peace organisation, the priority and the common ground is: Stop the Occupation and respect the respective UN-Resolutions. A specific focus is on the situation of women.
In the region, both sections differently and sometimes with joined energies, formulate political requests, act locally and regionally together with other networks and organisations and provide actual information on the situation and on burning issues to WILPF international. These information are necessary to mobilize public opinion, lobbying for government policies that would lead to more peace and justice in the region.
In specific cases (Human rights Council, Peace talks, political events in Wilpf and beyond) the ME sections try to forward a common statement to provide substance for engagements by the international stuff and UN representatives with relevant countries and UN entities.
The Israeli section has written last year and continues to write reports on burning issues: March 2007 on discrimination of Palestinian/Arab citizens in Israel May 2007 on the Wall and the Separation barrier June 2007 on Gaza 2 further reports are planned: on the unrecognised Bedouin villages in the Negev and on Hebron
The Palestinian section has also written different reports for example "People living behind walls" and is willing to work on Hebron now.
These reports can be parallel; if 2 reports are on the same topic (Hebron) the different views will be very visible and transparent. The evident differences of the starting points are respected, but also the convergence of the convictions will be clear. All reports should be accessible on the website.
Concerning the complexity of writing common Statements forwarded to the international, I propose to lift the tradition of absolute consensus and focus on what is common and where is possible dissent. This could help to make the political problems more transparent and allow more flexibility in reactions.
Concrete Objectives: New reports (see above) this year on the actual situation.
Before the next IB Meeting in India there should be a coordinated ME meeting in a reachable distance (Amman, Cyprus, Turkey). All ME sections (also Lebanon) brainstorm on the necessary political focus which should not only be a repetition of traditional statements (women in politics, Perspectives fort he new generation, nuclear issues…..). Date: at least end of October 2008 The Israeli and the Palestinian section meet bilaterally earlier. A proposal should be written in May or June. The ME committee meeting formulates a paper/statement for India.
Coordination: Support both sections to come to agreements Linking the ME sections to WILPF international and vice versa Transparency for the political requests coming from and to the ME sections Communication facilities